EU: It′s cool to be pro-EU with popular French President Emmanuel Macron

A year ago, the European Union was in a world of woe. The UK wanted out, populists were rising in the polls and Donald Trump predicted more countries would follow in the footsteps of Brexit - and that they'd be better off for it. EU public relations staffers were continuing their desperate search for that elusive "narrative" that would make Europeans feel like they were part of a winning team.

All eyes were on the Dutch elections in March,the first domino in the lineup. If far-right nationalist Geert Wilders made significant gains on Prime Minister Mark Rutte, it would be the harbinger of a bigger disaster to come: French voters choosing the National Front's Marine Le Pen as their next president.

Rutte's win, if not particularly inspiring, provided the EU with some space to breathe. And by then it was obvious that newcomer Emmanuel Macron and his just-created "En Marche" movement were encroaching on France's old guard from both the left and the right with an undeniable energy, derived in part from being pro-EU and proud of it. By the time Macron made the long dramatic walk to give his acceptance speech accompanied by the EU - not the French - anthem, the tide of public sentiment had already turned in the EU's favor, with Macron sitting atop the crest of the wave.

Last week that feeling was quantified and described as a dramatic rebound by the Pew Research Center in a survey on public approval. It found that people in nine of the 10 member states surveyed - all but Greece - now view the EU favorably, "including 74 percent in Poland, 68 percent in Germany, 67 percent in Hungary and 65 percent in Sweden." That's true even in the UK, according to Pew.

Read more: It′s cool to be pro-EU with popular French President Emmanuel Macron | Europe | DW | 22.06.2017

USA: Trump just received the lowest approval rating in recent history for a new president

US President Donald Trump received the lowest approval rating — and highest disapproval rating — for a new president in recent history, according to a survey released Friday.

The poll, from CNN, showed that a 53% majority said they disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job two weeks into office. Just 44% approve of the job he's doing, 7 points below the previous low for presidents measured in the survey.

Trump is the only president in recent history to hold a net-negative rating at this point in his tenure.

Trump came into office as the least popular president in modern history, surveys showed. But several actions during his first two weeks have appeared to contribute to the latest erosion in Trump's numbers:

Read more: Trump just received the lowest approval rating in recent history for a new president

The Netherlands: Geert Wilders PVV drops 6 percentage points in latest election popularity political poll

The ruling VVD would be the biggest party in parliament if there was a general election tomorrow, according to a new poll from Kantar TNS, formerlly TNS Nipo.

The poll gives the right-wing Liberals 27 seats in the 150 seat parliament, or 18% of the vote. Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam PVV, which was on target to win 29 seats in the September poll, has now slumped to 23.

In June, Nipo put support for the PVV as high as 36 seats, or 24% support. The middle ground is still held by the Liberal Democrats (D66), Socialists and Christian Democrats on 18 and 16 seats respectively.

Wilders who has alligned himself closely with Donald Trump, and even went to the Republican convention to openly endorse him can expect even more backlash from that decision if Trump looses in November

Almere-digest

Netherlands: Dutch business leaders slam cabinet polices, support at record low

Dutch business leaders are extremely unhappy with the current right-left coalition's policies and think the cabinet is failing to tackle the crisis.

Employers' organisation VNO-NCW questioned 471 company bosses about their attidudes to the VVD-PvdA government and current policy. In total, the cabinet scored just 4.9 out of 10 - a record low according to the Telegraaf.

Prime minister Mark Rutte was rated 5.4, well below most of his senior ministers. Top ranked minister was finance chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem from the PVDA (Labour Party) government coalition member, who scored 6.6.

Read more: DutchNews.nl - Dutch business leaders slam cabinet polices, support at record low

Social networking in the Netherlands popular - by Alexandra Gowling

Social networks are very popular in the Netherlands, with on average 85 per cent of the Dutch internet audience (10 million people) using one of them in recent months.

Of the various networks available, Facebook is the most popular, with just over half of the whole Dutch population using the world’s biggest social network. Second most popular is LinkedIn, with just under half that audience, followed closely by Twitter.

The Dutch social network Hyves is most popular with older users, with two-thirds of their users over 35, while half of Tumblr’s users are under 35. More people in the 45 to 55 age bracket use Twitter and LinkedIn, while the largest age group, surprisingly perhaps, for Facebook users are the over 55s.

According to Facebook Benelux, 6,1 million Dutch people log on to their accounts every day, which is unsurprising as the Dutch use the internet almost more than anyone else in Europe.

People in the Netherlands are also using smartphones more and more, as seen in the 77 per cent of Facebook users who check their account on their smartphone or tablet. Of these six million users, 4,6 million log in every day.

Read more: Social networking in the Netherlands | Dutch News